chasing a life in the high desert

What’s Happening Next

Despite having less time to work with Zeke over the past week, we really did get a lot accomplished. I also came to the decision that I would not be taking my first ride on Zeke until the end of the month – not because he’s not ready, but because I have too many more weeks of little time coming up. He’s going to need some consistency at the beginning, and I want to wait until I can give him that.

On May 18th and 19th, the Yucca Valley Equestrian Center crew will be headed down to Norco to watch Cindy compete in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. I plan to be there to watch the events, cheer on Cindy and her Makeover horse Hannah, and take photos to complete this year’s Makeover chronical. You can see what Cindy’s been up to at our website, http://yuccavalleyequestriancenter.com. The week following the Makeover will be me and Zeke’s first week of riding!

This week we did more ground driving, in the roundpen and then in the wood arena. On Thursday I felt he was doing so well in the arena that I opened the gate and drove him out! We drove around the barn and back to the grooming area, and though he was reluctant to enter without me going in front, we did manage to drive through the barn, too! Cristina took some photos for us.

Zeke doesn’t have trouble with getting the ropes tangled – only I do!

After our workout, Zeke got his yearly vaccinations, and he was very brave.

On Friday evening, he was still showing a little bit of reaction to the vaccine. Nothing big, he was just slower-moving than normal. Rather than do a whole big workout, I saddled him with a ‘real’ saddle, and just took him for a quick lunge in it. The saddle we’ve been using is tiny and very light-weight, made of cordura material instead of leather. Now that I know he’s fine with wearing the saddle, and not prone to throwing himself over on his back when he doesn’t get his way, it was time to try out the full-sized leather saddle. Despite the weight difference, he didn’t mind his new gear.

After that short work, we spent some time with me sitting and climbing on him, then called it a good week.